International mainstream media, including CNB, Mashable, derStandard, The Independent and others, reported at length in early February 2015 on the Croatian government's new program to erase the debt of its poorest citizens, with headlines like “This country has just canceled poor people's debt” and “Croatia wipes out debts for 60,000 people”.

The headlines aren't false, but many Croatian citizens fail to see the benefits and economic improvements outlined in newspapers worldwide.

Truth be told, Croatia's government has come up with what seems to be a brilliant idea to help poor citizens. They named the project “Fresh Start”, planned it meticulously, and launched the project in the first weeks of 2015. To envisage how this government plays the straight man with its citizens, it's important to point out that the last time the value of the Swiss Franc went up, Croatia's leaders decided that freezing the national currency would provide the necessary amortization and prevent fiscal oscillations to keep the market stable. In other words, they intervened in the country’s foreign exchange market to preserve the appearance of a stable economy (a common practice in many southeastern European countries).

The idea for “Fresh Start” was first presented to the public in early March 2014, by former Minister of Finance Slavko Linić, who has since been booted from the Social Democratic Party (SDP).

It is also important to keep in mind that 2015 is a parliamentary election year in Croatia, and that SDP, the current majority in government, have just suffered a great loss in the January 2015 presidential elections, which was won by a HDZ center-right party candidate.

Meanwhile, in the midst of planning austerity measures, Prime Minister Milanović hired Alexander Braun, a specialist in political and crisis consulting and senior vice president of US strategy consulting firm Penn Schoen Berland, for the rumored fee of some 300,000 euro.

To complete the picture of this situation, let's talk numbers: there are 4,284,889 people in Croatia (census 2011), 329,330 (15.7%) of whom are unemployed, according to the Croatian Employment Institute. 56,632 Croatians, most of them under 30, are involved in some kind of state-sponsored employment, and paid an average of 300 euro net per month. The Croatian public debt is now more than 53 billion euro, while the average wage is 703.97 euro, and the minimum wage is 398.31 euro. According to Novi list, an average four-person family in Croatia makes about 7,830 kn (1,014.40 euro) per month. In order to satisfy their needs and expenses, however, the same family needs some 11,130 kn (1,442.00 euro) per month. The numbers make it fairly obvious that many ordinary working people in Croatia aren't able to make ends meet. These people are not considered needy or among the poorest in the country.

“Fresh Start will erase up to 60,000 Croatian kuna per individual (about 8,000 euro or US$8,800), literally allowing their households to retrieve full stability overnight,”claims the Like Croatia website, adding that “not only the government is involved in this project, so are other legal bodies including banks and communications companies.”

All this is true. But what will come next? The 60,000 people mentioned time and again are in debt for a reason. Would it not be much wiser to reopen the factories destroyed in the post-war privatization process? Or create more jobs, something that voters have called for ahead of, during, and after several past elections? History seems determined to repeat itself in Croatia, where expenses keep growing and citizens simply don't earn enough to cover them, and lack knowledge about finances and employment opportunities.

As Vanja Tarczay from Zagreb tweeted, expressing a popular opinion on the matter:

To be eligible for debt relief, citizens must be holders of bank accounts that have been frozen for longer than one year as of October 2014, and be owing up to 35,000 kn (4,534.91 euro) cumulatively, as documented by FINA, the national Financial Agency.

New explosions of the Swiss franc have caused more division among the citizens than verbal brawling by calling out who is a greater Croat. No matter how difficult it is for the 60,000 citizens who are indebted in Swiss currency and their families, and as far as legalislation is guilty for Croatian fooling around with francs, the fact that people who took out loans in that currency did it on their own responsibility. But few are ready to admit that, along with banks and the administration, it they are also to blame for the situation they are in. Nobody, in reality, forced them to go into debt and it's gladly forgotten that there are ministers, speculators, and very wealthy people among them.

Fresh Start is exclusively motivated by will to help the people, but it's really nice to see that international public has recognized it”.

The Croatian public has also “recognized it”, but can perhaps be forgiven for giving it a less positive reception than the international media. Fresh Start is essentially a good project, but there are fears that the whole project was created just to score political points.

There are many in Croatia who have lost their jobs in recent years through no fault of their own. And people are now paying the price by being heavily in debt and having their accounts blocked. Fresh Start may offer some temporary relief, but they will have to continue living after their debts are wiped. That's something the government should start thinking about.

Children sitting in front of one of the barrack's in the Sisak concentration camp. Public domain.

In 1941, the Croatian radical right-wing Ustashi movement came to power and formed the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), led by Ante Pavelić. NDH followed fascist regimes in Europe by forming concentration camps, and killing and persecuting Serbs, Jews, and Romas, not to mention Croatian partisans and their families.

In August 1942, NDH built a camp in Sisak, Croatia, for both adults and children. The children's section of the concentration camp was dubbed the “Shelter for Children of Refugees“ and was the biggest of its kind in the Ustashi-run Independent State of Croatia. The so-called “shelter” was led by Dr. Antun Najžer, under the patronage of The Female Lineages of the Ustashi movement and Ustashi surveillance services. Today we have documents showing that Dr. Najžer and his team performed tests on the children held in the camp, starving to death some, and torturing in various ways others.

A monument in children section's camp graveyard says approximately 2,000 people are buried there, but there's never been an organized effort to exhume the bodies, so no one knows for sure. A recent article on the Croatian news site Portal Novosti describes the history of the camp, bearing the chilling headline “Sisak Also Had Its Mengele” (referring to the Auschwitz concentration camp's infamous physician).

The town of Sisak, subjected to another devastating conflict in the 1990s during the Croatian Independence War, holds an event annually at the graveyard on WWII Remembrance Day, laying wreaths on the memorial and inviting the camp's survivors to speak.

Dobrila Kukolj is one of the children who managed to survive the horrors of the concentration camp. Born in 1931 in Međeđa village, Bosnia-Herzegovina, she was placed in several children's camps during the war. Her life changed forever in 1941, when Ustashi forces attacked her village. In Portal Novosti's article, Kukolj says she best recalls the Sisak and Jasenovac concentration camps, both in Croatia, and describes what arriving at the camps was like:

Entering the concentration camp was the same thing as entering a death club ruled only by lawlessness and madness, where you could hear only screams, crying and moaning, all the way to the sky. One sight that still freezes the blood in my veins is running from the Ustashes who were capturing little girls and then brutalizing them. That's when I accidentally stepped on a newborn lying on the ground. The cry it let out still rings in my ears. We who have survived the camps are at the end of our journeys, but our legacy shouldn't ever be forgotten and that's why I ask the generations who are here and who are yet to come to ensure that such evil brought by war never again returns—not in our country or any other.

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/02/06/the-ustashi-legacy-remembering-the-childrens-concentration-camp-in-sisak/feed/0Croatia Makes History With First Woman President, But Her Politics Worry Some Votershttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/01/14/croatias-makes-history-with-first-woman-president-but-her-politics-worry-some-voters/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2015/01/14/croatias-makes-history-with-first-woman-president-but-her-politics-worry-some-voters/#commentsWed, 14 Jan 2015 15:19:55 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=504100

Kolinda Grabar Kitarović: “Hahaha, everybody is saying that we don't get along, and in the meantime, we're treating ourselves.”Ivo Jospović's reply: “Thank you! Here, have a cookie!”Cartoon by Nik Titanik, republished with permission.

Former NATO Assistant Secretary General for Public Diplomacy Kolinda Grabar Kitarović has been elected Croatia's first woman president, defeating the incumbent president in the first presidential elections since the small southeastern European country joined the European Union last year.

Grabar Kitarović won in a tight race against incumbent President Ivo Jospović in the runoff in January 2015, netting 50.74% of the votes, according to preliminary results. She will be inaugurated on February 18, 2015.

As Croatia's first woman president, and the country's fourth elected president since independence, she will undoubtedly leave her mark on both the country and region. But despite her historic win, many citizens who would have preferred a different political representative are worried as to how their views and needs will be represented with her at the helm.

“Teacher, the test is over, but Bosnia is still writing!”This meme has widely circulated following Croatia's presidential runoff. The diaspora is often called out for favoring right-wing political parties, while not living and paying taxes in Croatia.

A member of the Croatian Democratic Union, the party instrumental in Croatia gaining independence in 1992, Grabar Kitarović is eager to bring what she has called “the Croatian spirit” back, as well as re-enforce “traditional” values. The country is highly divided between the available center-left and center-right political options, and she only defeated Josipović by only a few thousand votes.

Josipović becomes the first Croatian president since the country's independence who didn't win reelection for a second term, as both Franjo Tuđman, Croatia's first president, and Stjepan Mesić were both reelected for two full terms each. In the eyes of many voters, Josipović hasn't done much for Croatians during his mandate as president.

The road to a runoff

The race seems to have been dirty and expensive. The first round of elections was held on December 28, 2014, with four candidates for its presidency: Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, a young political activist, who was the biggest surprise and managed to take 16.42% of the vote; Milan Kujundžić, a right-wing politician, who won only 6.30% votes; Grabar Kitarović, representing the center-right Croatian Democratic Union, who took 37.88%; and incumbent President Josipović, who won 38.48% votes. The president can't be elected unless he or she secures more than 50% of the votes.

Because none of the four managed to surpass the 50% threshold (only 47.14% of the total electorate voted in first round), Grabar Kitarović and Josipović went head to head on January 11.

During the campaign, the candidates offered up many plans for the country, still struggling with a troubled economy, high unemployment, low GDP and corruption. However, despite the amount of money poured into the elections, presidential power is actually very limited within the Croatian government, with the president mainly acting as a representative within the country and abroad and performing ceremonial duties such as awarding important individuals.

No matter how divided we are in these or future electoral percentages, the bad economical percentages are the same for everyone #izboriprh (#electionscroatia)

Nevertheless, candidates sought votes through television debates, which often left the average voter wanting for a concrete reason to give either candidate their vote. Debates did, however generate some humorous tweets from Croatian social media users under the hashtags #izboriprh (#electionscroatia), #izbori2014 (#elections2014), #debataRTL (#debateRTL), and #HRTizbori (#HRTelections).

Debate topics such as WWII war crimes and war profiteering during and after the Croatian War of Independence were inevitable during the televised face-off between Josipović and Grabar Kitarović, who also previously was ambassador of Croatia to the United States. History very much plays a role in Croatia today — politicians seem take any opportunity they can to focus on historical topics in public instead of more pressing, modern-day topics that directly affect the everyday citizen.

A deeply divided country

Grabar Kitarović is favored by the right-wing electorate and the Croatian diaspora, especially Croatian citizens living in Bosnia-Herzegovina. In both Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina, polling stations were open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on January 11, but by 7 p.m. in Mostar, Bosnia, hundreds of people were still waiting in line to vote, so the polling station there stayed open until each vote was cast. Voters queued up in long lines and traveled from all over Bosnia-Herzegovina to vote in Mostar, and many social media users in Croatia are joking that Grabar Kitarović is in fact the new Mostar mayor.

Croatia has always been divided politically, but it seems that the country has now hit a new peak in this divide. Regional media are quick to point out the trend of neo-nationalism in Croatia, which is, some say, a powder keg waiting to blow.

Although Grabar Kitarović said that she will be “working for a better Croatia” and would not discriminate or exclude citizens based on their political beliefs, some on the left remain skeptical. One tweet summed up the general sentiment:

What is saddest is that this historical event, in a patriarchal state, is probably not seen as a victory by any feminist. #izboriprh

Libela.org, an independent portal on gender, sex and democracy in Croatia, asked whether Grabar Kitarović is capable of uniting the nation and working in favor of women's rights, despite the fact she did not play the “female card” during the elections.

A nation is made of people, and the people of Croatia have chosen Kolinda Grabar Kitarović to be their next president, as is supposed to happen in a democracy. Time will tell how much good the people's choice will bring the country.

Over the last 23 years, since Croatia's independence, several religious and neo-conservative groups have tried to oppose such laws and forbid legally induced abortions. None of them have, for the time being, tried to put pressure on legislators in a way that would actually ban abortions altogether, although many have organized protests and anti-freedom-of-choice campaigns like “40 days for life”. None of the organizations rallying against women's rights have discussed contraception, education, and social-economic factors involved in abortion rates and practices.

There is no institutional sexual education in schools, and the groups that are “praying for life” are opposed to introducing education on the matter and expanding basic knowledge of reproductive rights and contraception in the country. Such actions have only raised the stigma and shame directed at women who have decided to have an abortion.

An even bigger threat to women's reproductive rights in Croatia is conscientious objection, which allows gynecologists to choose not to perform abortions and amniocentesis, subscribe contraception, or some aspects of medically aided fertilization. If the procedures regarding female sexual health aren't reconciled with his or her moral grounds, he or she is then allowed to deny performing them.

Pro-choice protesters gathered in Zagreb on November 28, 2014, carrying a banner that reads: “We don't want to go back to illegal abortions”. Photo by Center for Civic Courage, used with permission.

Because elective abortion isn’t part of the basic national healthcare program, prices generally range from 100 euros to 400 euros (about 124 to 500 US dollars). In some cases, hospital boards have gone as far as to decide not to perform abortions in their institutions, which is a direct violation of existing laws, but authorities have let such decisions slide.

Recently, the Ministry of Health has made some improvements and obligations that induced abortion will be available as a medical service in every hospital which has a gynecology department. Nevertheless, while attempting to create access to legal abortions, the same ministry is allowing Sv. Duh from Zagreb to be exempt from that obligation. Although Croatia is a secular state, the Catholic Church in Croatia still has extreme influence in creating laws and opinions.

Last year, 3,816 induced abortions were performed in Croatia, which make up only 35% of all abortions in 2013 in the country. Another 65% were medically necessary abortions due to malformations or other medical reasons. These statistics do not paint an entirely true picture, because pro-choice activists in Croatia have noticed that some of the abortions are performed outside of medical institutions equipped for performing them and some procedures get registered other medical conditions.

Although in 2014 the Croatian government granted “fast internet connection” of 1Mb/s, allegedly allowing more access and freedom of information, Croatia is still coping with low GDPs, high unemployment rates, growing nationalistic tendencies, including extreme religious influence in society and state affairs, and regression regarding woman’s reproductive rights and health issues.

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/12/15/womens-reproductive-rights-in-croatia-is-the-clock-ticking/feed/6Balkan Nationalists Bring Back Personality Cults in Tattoos of Ruling Politicianshttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/11/09/balkan-nationalists-bring-back-personality-cults-in-tattoos-of-ruling-politicians/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/11/09/balkan-nationalists-bring-back-personality-cults-in-tattoos-of-ruling-politicians/#commentsSun, 09 Nov 2014 21:39:18 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=485298Tattoos of former political leaders have to become so popular in the Balkans in recent years that it has has launched these leaders into worship-level status.

A previous tattoo tradition, mostly from the 1950s until the late 1980s in former Yugoslav states, was that of emblems and symbols of the Yugoslav People's Army. Conscripts who had to endure one to two years of mandatory military service often came back with almost prison-like tattoos as mementos. These included state symbols, images of weapons, or the face of then Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito, while his personality cult was still going strong.

After the dissolution of Yugoslavia, images of other historical figures began to appear in tattoo form, in particular on the bodies of young males with a nationalist flare, such as images of 20th century Croatian fascist leader Ante Pavelić among Croats and of Chetnik Serb leader Draža Mihailović among Serbs. New color techniques began being used for new versions of Tito tattoos as well, among those who remained nostalgic.

Tattoos of Tito (earlier and newer versions), Pavelić, and Mihajlović.

In 2009, Croatian daily Slobodna Dalmacija reported that a man from Banja Luka tattooed the image of contemporary Bosnian-Serb politician Milorad Dodik. The phenomenon of tattooing the faces of contemporary Balkan leaders seemed only to grown stronger after that.

The most recent example of this phenomenon ended on the front page of the Macedonian newspaper Vest. A man from Shtip tattooed the faces of the prime minister's cousin and Secret Service chief Sasho Mijalkov, and his son. The tattooed man claimed he's grateful for the help provided by the powerful and wealthy VMRO-DPMNE offical throughout his life.

Front page of Macedonian daily Vest from August 7, 2014, with photo of a man with Mijalkov tattoos.

This revived tradition has been subject to ridicule by humorists in several Balkan countries. Croatian satirical site News Bar published a fake news piece about Croatian right-wing politician Tomislav Karamarko who, in this piece, asks a tattoo artist to put the image of the “greatest Croatian statesman of the 20th century” on his chest. Instead of his late party boss and Croatian leader Franjo Tuđman, as expected, he gets a Josip Broz Tito tattoo from the artist.

Macedonian independent political magazine Fokus also posted a a satirical piece recently, poking fun at two trends: the tattoos and the appointment of surprisingly young government ministers with very little prior experience to their name.

After several big fans of VMRO-DPMNE tattooed the images of Gruevski and Sasho Mijalkov on their shoulders, the ruling party decided to meet the needs of the youngest generation for decorating their arms with some of their functionaries.

Therefore, the kids will be able to apply wider range of heroes besides Sponge Bob, Dora the Explorer, Diego, and Tom and Jerry. A special series of chewing gums with temporary tattoos with the image of [Dime Spasov] is on sale.

The tattoo peels off in several days or can be removed by Bekutan soap [a popular local brand of baby cosmetics].

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/11/09/balkan-nationalists-bring-back-personality-cults-in-tattoos-of-ruling-politicians/feed/1Information Hub for Humanitarian Aid for Bosnia and Herzegovina Floodshttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/30/information-hub-for-humanitarian-aid-for-bosnia-and-herzegovina-floods/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/30/information-hub-for-humanitarian-aid-for-bosnia-and-herzegovina-floods/#commentsFri, 30 May 2014 01:17:33 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=472454POINT, the international conference on political accountability and new technologies in Sarajevo, has used its skills to aid in relief of the ongoing disaster affecting three Balkan countries – Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia. BosniaFloods.org, the first tool developed by the participants, specifically targets Bosnia, because the situation in this country was made particularly abysmal because its government structure hindered disaster coordination.

In Bosnia, the floods and landslides directly affect over 1.36 million people, about 1/4 of the population, and lack of information in English inhibits people abroad who would like to help. The multinational team congregates and translates bits of information currently spread around the web. It addresses their credibility, mindful that in Serbia and possibly elsewhere there were attempts to swindle prospective donors via false bank accounts. Money is probably the easiest kind of aid to send. The people affected also need food, clothes and medical aid that can be delivered from other European countries, as well as volunteers who could coordinate such efforts within their countries.

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/30/information-hub-for-humanitarian-aid-for-bosnia-and-herzegovina-floods/feed/1Tens of Thousands Stranded, Serbians Take Flood Relief Into Their Own Handshttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/19/serbians-take-flood-relief-into-their-own-hands/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/19/serbians-take-flood-relief-into-their-own-hands/#commentsMon, 19 May 2014 15:35:29 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=471316

The river rising in Sremska Mitrovica, Serbia, on May 17, 2014. Photo by Stanko Pužić. Used with permission.

In May 2014, a natural disaster the size of which officials claim hasn't been seen in over 120 years hit Serbia and Bosnia, when a huge low-pressure cloud system hovered over the region and shed three-months worth of rainfall in only three days.

Many Serbian and Bosnian cities are several meters underwater and have been evacuated, leaving at least hundreds dead and tens of thousands homeless and displaced. In Serbia, the government has been accused of botching relief efforts, while civilian-led movements have stepped up in an impressive way.

Flood warnings for Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina were first announced in mid-April 2014 and some minor flooding, not unusual for the region for this time of year, was seen later in the month.

During the week of May 12, a veil of clouds covered the region and rain constantly poured down for several days. By May 15, the first deaths were reported and over 500 people were evacuated from their homes. The rain kept coming in a constant stream in the following days and the many rivers that run through the two countries kept rising.

Five cities, including the capital Belgrade, and 16 municipalities declared a state of emergency on May 15, while the western and central parts of Serbia were hit hardest by the flooding. Rescue operations by military forces were almost immediately implemented, and major evacuations of several cities were quick and mostly successful. Obrenovac, a city just outside Belgrade and a major national power plant, lost several hundreds of lives in the process.

Official relief efforts and placement of evacuees, however, were not as well coordinated as the military and police rescue efforts.

On Sunday, May 18, an op-ed from Druga Strana (Other Side) portal titled “State, We Don't Want to Keep You Any Longer” criticized the poor organization and lack of information provided by the government of the Republic of Serbia during this disaster. It soon began widely circulating on social networks and was reposted in many other locations. The site is occasionally unavailable, allegedly due to the number of visits to this particular article on the site.

The op-ed summarizes the disappointment of many in Serbia regarding what seems to be lack of organization among top government officials during the tragic floods. It begins by praising the highly effective coordination of citizens and several new civic movements during the natural disaster:

Let's clarify the following immediately: all praise to the people of this country. If we didn't have us, we would have fallen through ages ago. Observing the self-organization and force of solidarity that have been raised in a very short time, one cannot help but feel proud and immediately understand on why we have survived all sorts of things throughout history.

Because we are, at the end of the day, there for each other in the worst situations. Perhaps in normal circumstances we take that for granted too often. We imagine we are alone, that everyone fends for themselves, but this, what we are seeing these days, isn't quite so.

On the other hand, the state has shown unseen laziness, unpreparedness, and complete lack of organization. And who needs a state like that?

The post goes on to list a number of faults committed by the government during the floods that can often be heard on the streets in Serbia and seen on social networks these days. Among other things, President Tomislav Nikolić has been criticized for only having addressed the nation through media once during the entire ordeal, while Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić, previously accused of repressing media in the country, has been criticized for claiming too much air time and, along with other ministers, taking advantage of the tragedy for photo ops and political points.

In the meantime, people have banded together to create several civic movements to aid in the disaster relief, from reinforcing dams in cities such as Kostolac, where 20 percent of Serbia's power supply comes from, to creating information verification and distribution systems on social networks and sites such as Poplave.rs (Floods) and Nestali.rs (Missing). In the first 24 hours of setting up the site for missing people in the floods, the site had 270 reports of missing people and 11 people found.

A team of journalists, bloggers, IT and PR professionals are behind those two sites as well as others, in a highly coordinated effort to transmit and disperse only verified and up-to-date information to the masses as well as map the flood damage.

Among many tweets criticizing the government and praising civilian efforts during the floods, one by blogger and photographer Dušan Ninković expressed what many have been feeling for days:

Let's voluntarily, after we save these people, build Corridor 11 [a much needed motorway corridor linking Bari, Bar, Belgrade and Bucharest that has been in the plans for years], the Horgos-Pozega highway [a portion of highway from Hungary through Serbia that has previously been linked to allegations of corruption], the channel to Thessaloniki [a river channel leading from Belgrade to northern Greece, the feasibility of which has been questioned by some experts], and the tunnel through Fruska Gora [one of the most important infrastructural projects in northern Serbia, set to begin in 2015] ?

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/19/serbians-take-flood-relief-into-their-own-hands/feed/11Serbia Mourns British-Serbian Legend Timothy John Byfordhttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/11/serbia-mourns-british-serbian-legend-timothy-john-byford/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/11/serbia-mourns-british-serbian-legend-timothy-john-byford/#commentsSun, 11 May 2014 23:01:38 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=469804Author, actor, educator, television and film director Timothy John Byford died in Belgrade on May 5, 2014, after a long illness. Born in Salisbury, England, Byford spent most of his life in Belgrade, where he moved in 1971 and later became a naturalized citizen of Serbia.

He is best known for his children’s TV series: Neven (‘Marigold’), Babino unuče (‘Granny’s Boy’) and Poletarac (‘Fledgling’) (all for TV Belgrade) as well as Nedeljni zabavnik (‘Sunday Magazine’), ‘Musical Notebook’ and Tragom ptice Dodo (‘On the Trail of the Dodo’) (all for TV Sarajevo). ‘Fledgling’ won a Grand Prix at the Prix Jeunesse International Festival in Munich in 1980.

Byford marked the lives and childhoods of several generations in Serbia and other former Yugoslav states through his television shows and educational programs. His presence was also felt in everyday Belgrade life, where he once rallied to have Banjica Park protected because of its feathered wildlife, and the term “Byfordian accent” has for decades been a popular way of describing someone who speaks Serbian well but with a heavy English accent.

Byford was genuinely beloved by his vast audience and fellow Belgraders, which has been touchingly apparent on social networks since his passing. Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and local media have been adorned with praise and gratitude to Byford and his contribution to culture and happy childhoods in Serbia and other former Yugoslav states. Enes Dinić from Serbia was among those who recounted Byford's wise words on Twitter:

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/11/serbia-mourns-british-serbian-legend-timothy-john-byford/feed/0Two People Are Driving Around Europe to Find What It Means to Be Europeanhttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/10/two-people-are-driving-around-europe-to-find-what-it-means-to-be-european/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/10/two-people-are-driving-around-europe-to-find-what-it-means-to-be-european/#commentsSat, 10 May 2014 20:12:16 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=470067 [All links lead to French-language pages unless otherwise noted.]

Twenty European countries. Thirty-two cities. One 1970s VW Bulli.

That's Claire Audhuy and Baptiste Cogitore's plan for the next six months, as they embark on their Europa Bulli Tour on May 10 in the hopes of creating a concrete portrait of the European identity.

Audhuy and Cogitore, who are the two founding members of theater ensemble and publishing group Rodéo d'âme (Rodeo soul) in Strasbourg, France, will produce a movie of their adventure, which has stops in Trieste, Minsk, Sarajevo, Skopje, Chisinau and Berlin, among many others.

The trip takes on additional meaning as the European Parliament prepares for elections on May 20. With the economic crisis still hitting the continent hard, the merits of belonging to the European Union is being questioned [en] in many European nations. Participation in the European elections is threatening to be low because of disillusionment with the economic union.

Claire Audhuy (CA): We (Baptiste and I) have just left our lives as students behind. This year, we also celebrate the tenth anniversary of our theater ensemble. So we felt that it was the right time for the two of us to launch a joint project before we both go our own way. Additionally, the topic of European identity is a subject we already tackled before in our various works. We have already interviewed many Europeans on this subject when we participated in the Thinking and Discussing Europe Project in 2011. But we did that from here, Strasbourg, France. So we wanted to go to eastern Europe, a region that is still a bit elusive for us. Initially, the project was not supposed to be impacted by current events. But clearly current news will probably strongly influence the tour, especially when we reach Ukraine.

A video preview of the Europa Bulli Tour

GV: Have you already set up interviews with some people on your journey? If so, could you give us a preview?

CA: We will arrive in Trieste in mid-May where we will have the pleasure to meet Boris Pahor, a 101-year-old man, resistance activist, writer and one of the great witnesses of World War II who was deported to the Struthof concentration camp in Alsace, France. Pahor is trying to get all the voices of the WWII victims heard, not just those of the Jewish community. He himself wore the red triangle at the camp, the sign that denotes political prisoners. At the Bulgarian-Turkish border, we will conduct interviews at a refugee camp. We will meet the director of the camp, the refugees, but also the staff of Frontex with this question in mind: Is Europe protecting itself or isolating itself from the rest of the world? Through our journey, we will also pay special attention to the Roma community, the emblematic figure of a number of European issues with minorities. We'll have a look at a theater set up by young Roma in the Romani language. We'll spend the night at the Gelem Hotel in Macedonia, a sort of bed and breakfast managed by the Roma community that gives a glimpse of the community from the inside by inviting outsiders to integrate themselves into their way of life and not the other way around, as often is the case of Roma in Europe. We will also meet with members of a Romani rap group. A group to definitely keep an eye on!

Similar to the gardiens des lieux project in Alsace, we also had this idea to go see what happens in abandoned synagogues in Europe today, with the overarching theme of the renewal of Judaism in Europe in mind. For example, we will visit a synagogue that now is home to a puppet theater directed by Lutaka Mostar.

The hope is that all these different stories will perhaps help us understand which Europe we really want.

CA: We both speak French, German and English. But we do not want that to limit us as far as meeting with communities, like young Roma who speak only Romani, or a Gypsy Hungarian poet who we were told we had to meet. This is why we will have fixers in each country to inform and advise us and translators (from high schools, French language institutes, etc.) to assist us in our efforts. The role of translators is essential for meetings to really take place. We have experienced their critical role before, when a play we wrote in French was acted in Arabic in a Palestinian refugee camp in Aida in 2013.

CA: The artists we are set to meet tell stories that could be forgotten in the near future. They are observers of the world and they offer a different perspective. For example, there is this incredible artist who lives alone in an abandoned village called Tara (von Neudorf) in the middle of Transylvania and his studio is located in an abandoned church. I cannot wait to meet him!

CA: Social media such as Facebook and Twitter allow us to highlight the core elements of our findings and then invite people to look further on their own. They are also tools to reach out to a lot of people you do not know, particularly through community forums, like the community that has formed around our Bulli car.

CA: Before we leave on May 10, there will be a concert at the European Doctoral College of Strasbourg on May 6. There is no entrance fee and two French groups that draw inspiration from eastern music will perform. In the first part, Arsène Rigoulot will play music from Ukraine with two violins and a guitar, and then the Taraf'Algar group will take over with Klezmer, Gypsy and Balkan repertoire. It is an open invitation to travel! Please do come on over!

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/10/two-people-are-driving-around-europe-to-find-what-it-means-to-be-european/feed/3PHOTOS: Forget Selfies, One Artist's Sketched Portraits Have Taken Over Twitter in the Balkanshttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/26/photos-montenegrin-artists-personal-profile-portraits-take-over-twitter/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/04/26/photos-montenegrin-artists-personal-profile-portraits-take-over-twitter/#commentsSat, 26 Apr 2014 09:39:18 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=467236

A collection of artist Radoje Rakočević's Twitter avatar portraits. Image by Radivoje Rakočević, used with permission.

In early February 2014, the Twitter feeds of users in several Balkan countries saw a drastic visual change. Over the next several weeks, instead of the headshots or selfies people tend to use as their avatars on Twitter, ink and pencil drawings of their previous avatars took over the popular social network.

The man behind the wave of avatar portraits is young artist and medical doctor Radoje Rakočević from Montenegro, better known to a wider audience on Twitter as @sirivoje. Currently a student of the School of Visual Arts of the University of Podgorica in Montenegro, Rakočević opened his Twitter profile after his professors suggested he use the network to follow other artists and promote his own work.

One of the dozens of avatar portraits by Radoje Rakočević. Image courtesy of the artists. Used with permission.

Always ready and willing to chat (or draw) online, Rakočević answered a few questions for Global Voices regarding his work and use of social media:

The professors considered my work mature and worthy of being presented to a wider audience, while social media would allow me to draw attention to my abilities. At first I drew caricatures, which were met with positive reactions, but after some time I wanted change, in a creative sense. Specifically, I missed doing classic pencil and ink drawings that I had neglected completely [for some time]. I thought this would be the ideal way to get that [technique] back in shape – to draw portraits of Twitter users.

Another example of how the artist manages to capture the personalities of people he has never met face-to-face. Image courtesy of Radoje Rakočević. Used with permission.

The result certainly got the artist attention from Twitter users from several countries in the region, and quickly. Soon enough, people were asking for their portraits, many offering to pay for the original drawing and wondering what else the artists could do. Rakočević's talent clearly shines through in the simple, black-and-white, yet lively and true-to-life portraits of people he has never seen and knows only through their 140-character tweets and avatars on the network.

The talented Rakočević, however, says that there are no particular rules to how he picks his “models” on Twitter and that the most important deciding factor is being “intrigued by a person's facial features”. In his chat with GV, he explained how it all works:

People thank me in different ways when I send them their portrait [on Twitter], sometimes offering professional collaboration. A member of an alternative music band from Belgrade hired me to do their album cover. Also, I got an offer to design the cover for a poetry book, which is something I always wanted to do. But what made me happiest are three offers regarding organizing exhibitions of my work.

I regularly send portraits as gifts to people who actively follow me on Twitter because it makes sense that I would want to reward those who support me and help my work to be heard of.

An exceptional professional profile photo turned into a more exceptional hand-drawn portrait of a Serbian Twitter user. Image courtesy of Radoje Rakočević. Used with permission.

Rakočević, as mentioned, also holds a medical degree and works full-time as a graphic and web designer in a creative agency in Podgorica. Aside from creating portraits of regional Twitters daily, his portfolio is chock full of other, often more colorful work. Thanks to Twitter's new look, a gallery of the avatar portraits is also available on his profile there.

The only question we didn't manage to get an answer to from the artists is – when and how does he ever find the time for all that he does?

The artist tends to ignore the background and brings out the character of the person he is capturing instead. Image courtesy of Radoje Rakočević. Used with permission.

Radoje Rakočević claims that he chooses his virtual models when he is “intrigued by a person's facial features”. Image courtesy of the artist, used with permission.

The diverse migratory flows that have reached Argentina from the 1880′s and until now contributed to the richness and variety of the typical [en] cuisine in the country.

The various ‘ferias de colectividades’ (cultural fairs) that take place throughout Argentina are good illustrations of this. In these fairs we can witness not only a display of each community's traditions, folkloric dances, beauty pageants and souvenirs but also their traditional dishes. For instance, during the Fiesta de Colectividades in the city of Rosario that takes place every year, a varied menu is offered representing the multiple communities (Latin, European and Asian) that compose the Argentinian society. In this video, we can see how typical Paraguayan food is prepared and sold during that same fair in Rosario.

Chop the onions very finely. Fry lightly with one tbsp of oil. Add the peppers after they've been diced followed by the leeks finely cut. Stir well. Add the cream and mushrooms.

Cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. You can also add some nutmeg if you wish. If sauce gets too thick, add some milk. Serve with grilled or roast chicken.

In addition there are community-specific celebrations, such as the one by the Volga Germans [en], who settled mostly in the province of Entre Ríos. The Volga Germans lived in the region of southeastern European Russia, close to the Volga river [en]. They came to Argentina in 1878 and preserved their traditions as well as their language. Cuisine is naturally at the heart of these traditions. This video produced by the Asociación Argentina de Descendientes de Alemanes del Volga (Argentinian Association of the Volga Germans Descendants) demonstrates how to prepare a Kreppel:

There also many restaurants serving foreign food. The Croatian community in Argentina, for instance, keeps its culinary traditions with restaurants like Dobar Tek, offering a rich Croatian menu. This video shows the “art” of preparing an apple strudel.

It's quite intriguing that the Armenian cuisine we eat in Argentina is quite different from the one actually consumed in Armenia. This has to do with the reinventions done by the different populations based on their homeland, the traditions that they bring and what ends up being valued in the new community. Some dishes are considered traditional yet they are barely known there (in Armenia).

One of the cities symbolizing the Jewish immigration to Argentina is Moisés Ville [en], established by the first immigrants who reached the country. On the YouTube account of the initiative Señal Santa Fe we can see the city and get to know how traditions are preserved through well-known dishes such as the strudel or the Knish [en] among others:

But which dish was quickly adopted by immigrants upon their arrival to the country? The asado [en] without any doubt, especially because the majority of the newcomers were peasants and meat was quite cheap. The Club Argentino de Asadores a la Estaca (Argetinian Club of Rotisseurs) has some photos for you to enjoy.

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/02/12/videos-argentinas-melting-pot-of-culinary-traditions/feed/2Prisoners Lists Stir Informbiro Memories in Former Yugoslav Republicshttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/02/11/prisoners-lists-stir-informbiro-memories-in-former-yugoslav-republics/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2014/02/11/prisoners-lists-stir-informbiro-memories-in-former-yugoslav-republics/#commentsTue, 11 Feb 2014 22:39:18 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=451886The recent publishing of lists of prisoners of Goli Otok, victims of communist purges in Yugoslavia from 1949 to 1956, has reignited dormant debates and opened some old wounds, across all the former Yugoslav republics.

Goli Otok is a Croatian island that was used as a prison camp during the so-called “Informbiro era” – the post-World War II breakdown between the communist leaderships of Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union. For many Yugoslavs, “Tito's historical ‘No!’ to Stalin” was a source of pride, especially because it solidified their country's role as an intermediary between the Western and Eastern Bloc. The purges that were part of the clash officially included persecution of alleged “pro-Soviet communists”. According to the victims and dissidents of the time, this was often just an excuse by the country's power-mongers to get rid of anyone they disliked for any reason and, thus, people of many other political affiliations were sent to the notorious camp.

During the last two months of 2013, Croatian portal Novi Plamen (New Flame) published two lists compiled by UDBA (Yugoslav State Security Service) from the State Archive of Croatia – the list of the 413 people [hr] who died in the camps, and the list of all 16,101 prisoners [hr] who had served sentences there. The second link spread widely through social networks and then through news portals in all six former Yugoslav republics.

Scan of the second page of Goli Otok prisoner list, displaying names, birthdates and codes for municipality, ethnicity, type of crime, dates of start and end of emprisonment… Published by Novi Plamen.

Slovenian right-wing blogger Pavel noted [si] that the publishing of the lists coincided with the recent December 9, 2013, death of Jovo Kapičić [sr], who had allegedly been the man in charge of Goli Otok. In an August 2013 interview, Kapičić, a Serb, claimed [sr] that the Serbs had made up the majority of prisoners at the camp.

Twitter user ‏@flusteredcooler from Montenegro commented on this issue as well and, while people from all of the former Yugoslav republics often claim that their nationals made up the majority of those sentenced to serve time at Goli Otok, he noticed:

Legend says that most of the population of Goli Otok consisted of Montenegrins? The lists show that it was Yugoslavia in a nutshell [representing everybody]

A senior Macedonian blogger, among the oldest members of the local blogosphere, and a World War II anti-fascist resistance veteran, Buv (“Owl”), posted an announcement [mk] by the Association of former Goli Otok prisoners, advising caution in relation to the lists and offering first-hand consultations to all interested parties:

The topic of the “inhabitants of Goli Otok,” the “Informbiro prisoners” is part of a larger historical topic about the conflict between the [USSR] and the [SFRY]. One cannot talk about the Goli Otok prisoners without taking into account the complexity of historical events.

Regardless of how much they were aware or ideologically involved in these concrete events, the participants who were detained on Goli Otok were engulfed in a political clash with exceptional historical importance, for them personally, for their country and the wider world movement.

We publish this notice to draw attention to the reactions that have been published with great ease after the lists of prisoners were exposed, as well at other occasions. Without taking into consideration the wider context of events, anyone can say anything without arguments. The importance of the historical issues requires a very serious approach.

The Goli Otok Association has the mission to explain, document and disclose the historical truth about the events which unwittingly encompassed these sufferers, who were so severely punished by history.

Informbiro activities left deep trauma in the collective former Yugoslav memory, parts of which were artistically expressed through popular cult movies like When Father Was Away on Business (1985) by then young Bosnian/Serbian director Emir Kusturica, and Happy New Year '49 (1986) by Macedonian director Stole Popov.

“European institutions should safeguard the right to free, independent and pluralistic information”. The quote, from the Media Initiative website, summarizes the main idea behind a pan-European campaign that aims at urging the European Commission to draft a Directive to protect Media Pluralism and Press Freedom.

The Media Initiative is running a European Citizens’ Initiative - a tool of participatory democracy “which allows civil society coalitions to collect online and offline one million signatures in at least 7 EU member states to present directly to the European Commission a proposal forming the base of an EU Directive, initiating a legislative process”. The petition is available in 15 languages and can be signed online:

Protecting media pluralism through partial harmonization of national rules on media ownership and transparency, conflicts of interest with political office and independence of media supervisory bodies.

Voja Antonić and his colleague Jova Regasek putting together the Galaksija prototype in 1983. Public domain.

The Galaksija (Galaxy) computer, created by inventor and author Voja Antonić in 1983 with detailed instructions for anyone to put together a personal computer with standard parts, is nothing less than legendary in the former Yugoslavia. The DIY home computer may not have matched the quality or high-tech readiness of most brand name computing machines of the time, but it inspired a country and a generation to plunge deeper and farther into the IT industry that was just beginning to develop worldwide.

As legend would have it, in the summer of 1983, a young journalist with a flare for all things tech and scientific, Voja Antonić, was vacationing in Montenegro. At the time, importing computers and such machinery into Yugoslavia was close to impossible for the average citizen due to complicated customs laws and licenses. Such technology didn't come cheap in the 1980s either. A standard PC in 1983 cost about an average Yugoslav worker's monthly salary, which was among the highest in Europe at the time.

Cover of the January 1984 edition of “Računari u vašoj kući” magazine. Public domain.

Antonić plunged into some summer reading on the Montenegrin coast that year about a new brand-name computer that had just been released on the global market. As he looked at the schematic, he realized that most of the parts of standard PCs had become readily available at most hardware stores throughout the country. Within months, the young Antonić had put together a schematic for anyone who wanted to build a do-it-yourself computer. He then contacted a few manufacturers of such parts and partnered with them to create DIY packages with all the necessary parts that any ordinary consumer could order for and put together at home.

Initially, the team involved believed they could sell as much as several hundred of the Galaksija kits, a number they thought to be highly optimistic but possible. Antonić knew he would also have to publish the schematic in a place where wider audiences could see it, for those who didn't want to order the ready to build Galaksija kit, but would rather purchase the parts on their own. He teamed up with Dejan Ristanović, who was barely 20 years old at the time and putting together a magazine about the latest in PC technology, “Računari u vašoj kući” (“Computers in Your Home”). Together, Ristanović and Antonić released the full diagram and instructions for the Galaksija personal computer in the first January 1984 edition of the magazine, published in December of 1983. Within a year or so, over 8,000 Galaksija kits were sold in Yugoslavia, while the number of those who purchased parts on their own and used the schematic to build their custom Galaksija were never recorded. That same year, Galaksija computers were introduced into elementary schools throughout the country. The year was 1984.

A tech revolution was incited. Ristanović, Antonić and their team also used radio and television to promote the Galaksija and everything computer-related, teaching average users how to customize both their hardware and tweak code here and there. The video below is one of Antonić's countless popular television appearances in which he sat down to explain some gaming basics to Galaksija and other PC users:

Thirty years later, Antonić is a world-renowned inventor, speaker and writer, while Ristanović is the editor-in-chief of one of the country's most popular geek magazines, PC Press, and co-founder of one of the first Internet providers in Serbia. Today, Serbia is known among those in the IT industry as a place of great potential and well-rounded developers and innovators, despite the recent decades of political, social and economic troubles. In a recent post, Eurogamer.net elaborated on how the Galaksija revolutionized the use of personal computers on several levels. Radio DJ Zoran Modli came upon the idea at the time to distribute software for the Galaksija and other similar machines – through the radio ether. As the Eurogamer.net article explains:

Like the ZX Spectrum and other computers of the time, programs were loaded onto the Galaksija from an audiocassette recorder. This gave Jova Regasek, the editor of Računari, an idea for a bold experiment. He got in touch with Zoran Modli, who hosted the show Ventilator 202 on Radio Belgrade. Modli's show was a mix of local bands and contemporary chart music, but he also had an interest in computers, and Regasek's idea was to broadcast the sound of a computer program that listeners could tape and then load up on their home machines. In effect, this was wireless downloading long before the days of wi-fi.

In the year of Galaksija's 30th anniversary, every school in Serbia is equipped with computers for students, the Internet penetration rate was close to 65 percent in 2012, and visitors are often surprised to find that wifi is readily available almost anywhere in every city and town in the country. Over one-third of the country's adult population uses the Internet daily, and the statistics are just as or more impressive for Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia and Slovenia, with Bosnia-Herzegovina lagging somewhat. With much to make up for after the turmoil of the last two decades and the global IT industry developing rapidly, the region has yet to catch up with some other high-tech markets. With the Galaxy to mark its past, many are confident that the region has a bright future ahead.

]]>http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/12/23/diy-galaksija-computer-bedrock-of-serbias-it-industry-turns-30/feed/0Croatian Citizens Vote Whether to Block Same Sex Marriagehttp://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/12/01/croatian-citizens-vote-whether-to-block-same-sex-marriage/
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/12/01/croatian-citizens-vote-whether-to-block-same-sex-marriage/#commentsSun, 01 Dec 2013 23:42:31 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=445308A referendum was held in Croatia on Sunday, 1 December 2013, in which Croatian citizens voted on whether or not marriage should be defined as a legal union between a man and a woman in the country's Constitution. Rallies were held on Saturday, November 30, and previous days in Zagreb and on social networks to oppose this definition.

An image by an anonymous author that was widely circulated on social networks throughout the month of November 2013, prior to the referendum; “December 1, 1955. Rosa Parks refused to stand up from a bus seat reserved for whites. What will you do on December 1?”

This referendum is Croatia's third since the country gained its independence and has been a hot topic in media, on social networks, as well as among the country's politicians for several weeks prior to the vote. The proposition was brought forth by a citizens’ association dubbed “In the Name of Family” (“U ime obitelji”), who gathered 700,000 petition signatures for this proposition, and was supported by conservative political parties and the Catholic Church in Croatia.

The association, conservatives, and the Church continuously promoted their campaign for citizens to vote in favor and recent polls showed that most Croatians support introducing this definition of marriage officially into Croatia's Constitution. Some users and media reported that, on the morning of the referendum, Catholic churches across the country were telling church goers that it is their duty to go out and vote in favor of the change. Almost 90% of of Croatia's 4.4 million population are Roman Catholics. James Ker-Lindsay, a senior research fellow in Southeast European politics at the London School of Economics, tweeted:

However, the conservatives’ proposition seems to have flushed out a movement of citizens against this proposition, as social media, online media and several protests by gay or equal rights supporters have flooded the Internet in recent weeks and, in particular, over the weekend of the referendum. Some readers may misunderstand the hashtag #protiv (#against) often associated with gay marriage and LGBT rights in Twitter and Facebook messages from Croatian users these days, but they are in fact expressing their stance against introducing this definition of marriage into the country's Constitution. Among politicians, this liberal side of the vote was led publicly with both Croatia's President Ivo Josipović, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusić calling on citizens to vote against the proposal at the referendum.

Ivo Špigel, a serial entrepreneur from Zagreb and columnist for Forbes Croatia, said:

Mornin'! A beautiful, sunny day – just right to go and vote against the referendum, and *for* human rights of our gay sisters and brothers

The day before the referendum, the association “In the name of Family” denied media accreditation [sr] to their headquarters on the day of the vote to some media who had provided coverage of the “Protiv” movement. Namely, Croatian dailies Večernji list and 24 sata, as well as RTL television were denied access to report from the association's headquarters. Following this decision, most Croatian media decided to support their colleagues and boycott the association's headquarters and media statements on the day of the referendum. Twitter user @markopadovancommented on the matter after the polls closed:

The #Protiv movement seems to have received plenty of support from Croatia's diaspora as well but, with the vast majority of Croatian members of Parliament and citizens allegedly supporting the change to the country's constitution, it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict what the results will be. Helena Kos, a young Croatian expat living in Berlin, tweeted hopefully:

If the results of the referendum are positive and Croatian citizens decide to define marriage exclusively as a legal union between a man and a woman, Croatia will de facto be the first European country to officially ban the possibility of gay marriage in the long-term.

Preliminary results of the polls are expected after 10 pm CET on Sunday, December 1, or the following day. At the time of writing this post, some 40% of ballots have been counted, with the majority in most cities showing over 60% of voters voting in favor of the amendment to the Constitution. One user, Hamide Morina, tweeted: